My new book is out. It all started with a flourish this weekend when the Daily Telegraph serialised it (link below). Publishing a book is a bit like having a baby. There is a long gestation period, followed by the new-born phase where you have to help …

I used to say there is nothing as dangerous as a frustrated author. I should know, because I used to be one. I could barely stand to hear about someone who had had their book published, it would send me into a frenzy of jealousy and frustrated angst. N …

I flew back here yesterday and almost immediately had to go to a meeting of my book club, not the one I created, but one I was asked to join just a week ago. The book under discussion was We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver. This is a book th …

Because I use this blog in part as a diary, I am going to post a speech my deputy made today and show you the glorious cake the magazine team had made for me. I just don’t want you to think I am trying to show off. But it was too lovely a gesture not t …

From today’s Daily Mail….I am a novelist! Finally! Novelist Helena Frith Powell writes, in her latest work, Love In A Warm Climate: ‘Johnny was tall, about six-foot-two, and well-built. But he had the most delicate hands, like a pianist’s – small wit …

Love in a Warm Climate is out now, available in the 3 for 2 at both Waterstone’s and Smith’s. I urge you to buy it please, not only to see which character you think is based on whom (!) but to ensure I can afford to keep Leo in football boots, Olivia i …

OK so not that I have been OBSESSIVELY checking my amazon rating but I just want to say, for the record, in case this is as good as it gets that I am 99. And here is the proof: cut and pasted just seconds ago: Product details Hardcover: 288 pages Publi …

So, it gets worse. Yesterday I woke up practically unable to breathe without my nose running. By 9am I had used a whole box of tissues. At 12pm I was due at an event at the Swiss Ambassador’s residence organised by his wife. “I love all your books,” sh …

It really was to hell in high heels when I finally left the launch party wearing my gorgeous red snakeskin Fratelli Rossetti stilettos. After three days of tottering around London in high heels there is not a part of my feet that doesn’t hurt. But it w …

I am doomed to failure. According to an article in this week’s Economist, to write a best-seller you need to be 30, on TV and writing about sex. The biggest selling book in Germany at the moment is apparently all about female fantasies and written by a …